Video: Balancing ragged lines

In the previous chapter on alignment, I spoke about using the Balance Ragged Lines feature on body text, and we saw how it could give us a more even rag to our text, but I cautioned against using it too much. Because it can sometimes be a bit unpredictable, and you want to be in control of your text. But where I think the balance ragged lines feature really comes into its own is when you are working with some sort of title treatment or some head line or sub head, and you can incorporate it into a paragraph style definition.

Explore the numerous type options, type-related features, and type-specific preferences of Adobe InDesign. Using practical, real-world examples, instructor and designer Nigel French dissects the anatomy of a typeface and defines the vocabulary of typography. The course moves from the micro to the macro level, addressing issues such as choosing page size, determining the size of margins, adjusting number columns, and achieving a clean look with baseline grids. This course takes you from laying out a page to delving into the hows and whys of typography.

Topics include:

Understanding text threads and text flow methods in InDesign

Using Copy and Paste vs. Place

Choosing and combining typefaces

Understanding leading and how it relates to type size and column width

Comparing points, picas, and ems

Learning the proper use of white space and break characters

Understanding the finer points of kerning and tracking

Working with punctuation, special characters, ornaments, and ligatures

Balancing ragged lines

In the previous chapter on alignment, I spoke about using the Balance RaggedLines feature on body text, and we saw how it could give us a more even rag toour text, but I cautioned against using it too much.Because it can sometimes be a bit unpredictable, and you want to be incontrol of your text.But where I think the balance ragged lines feature really comes into its own iswhen you are working with some sort of title treatment or some head line or subhead, and you can incorporate it into a paragraph style definition.

So it does what it says on the ten, it's going to give you lines of close toequal length, and here's how you apply it if you're going to apply it locally, youcome up to the Control panel menu, Balance Ragged Lines.Or if you want to incorporate it into a Paragraph Style definition youright-click on the style name Indents and Spacing, check Balance Ragged Lines,and that's what you will get.Now what you won't get always is lines broken the way that you might want them broken.InDesign is not going to know how to break your lines to increase the meaning of,or accentuate, or be sympathetic to, the meaning of the text.

So you may find there are times when you need to go in and add a soft returnof forced line break as well.So perhaps, I might like to come and add a Shift+Return right there to change theway the lines are breaking.That's up to you don't give over control to the Balance Ragged Lines feature.It's good as far as it goes, but it's not always perfect.

Find answers to the most frequently asked questions about InDesign Typography .

Here are the FAQs that matched your search "" :

Expand all | Collapse all

please wait ...

The exercise files provided aren't working in my version of InDesign (CS4, CS5, or CS5.5). What should I use?

This course was recorded using InDesign CS6. For InDesign users working with CS4, CS5, or CS5.5, IDML files are provided.

A: We added 18 new movies, primarily in the "Using Typekit" and "Type Treatments and Effects" chapters. These movies describe new and enhanced typography features in the latest release of InDesign CC, and are indicated by the "(CC 2014.1)" tag in their names.

Sorry, there are no matches for your search "" —to search again, type in another word or phrase and click search.

Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

Already a member ?

Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
Learn more

Upgrade to our Annual Premium Membership today and get even more value from your lynda.com subscription:

“In a way, I feel like you are rooting for me. Like you are really invested in my experience, and want me to get as much out of these courses as possible this is the best place to start on your journey to learning new material.”— Nadine H.

Thanks for signing up.

We’ll send you a confirmation email shortly.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.

Keep up with news, tips, and latest courses with emails from lynda.com.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.